Letters to the Editor — Jan. 29, 2013

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Posted Jan. 29, 2013 at 3:15 AM

Posted Jan. 29, 2013 at 3:15 AM

To the editor: Your op-ed of 1/23/13 concerning veterans care in New Hampshire was a little misleading. Your opinion groups claim of not needing full medical center in New Hampshire due to the abundance of other first class medical facilities works well for veterans who have some type of medical insurance coverage. But if you are one of the many veterans who are dependent on the VA because they have no other health care provider and are required to spend a day on a bus being shipped to a VA hospital in another state for treatment I think they would strongly disagree with your ridiculous statement.

William Whitmore

Manchester

To the editor: We are very fortunate to have such capable and honest public servants working for us in Dover. Superintendent Jean Briggs-Badger is no exception. Rather, she is an example of integrity, thoughtfulness and diligence in carrying out the people’s business.

Recently, Superintendent Briggs-Badger’s reputation has been unfairly impugned. Without dredging up the meritless accusations again, suffice it to say that the vast majority of Dover residents, whether liberal, conservative or independent, still support Ms. Briggs-Badger for her role as Superintendent.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank Jean publicly for always taking the time to speak with me about policy, even though I hold no elected office, and though we have different perspectives on a variety of issues. The mark of a great public servant is their willingness to listen. Jean exemplifies this quality. I encourage anyone who is concerned about Jean’s performance as Superintendent to take the time to sit down and speak with her about their concerns.

Political reputations are difficult to build but easy to destroy. Briggs-Badger is an unfortunate victim of an all too ready willingness to call someone dishonest simply because they have a different point of view. This isn’t limited to Dover politics of course; it’s a disheartening trend for politics in general.

Those who unfairly attack the character of Dover’s public servants would do well to remember a few things. First, an attack against someone else’s reputation is more meaningful when it comes from a reputable source, from someone who has built up the political capital to be taken seriously in their allegations. Second, most Dover residents can remember a time when they had much less faith in their local government than they have today. In short, we’ve never had it so good.

Administrators, city councilors, teachers and first responders are working with their neighbors to make Dover a great place to live, and they are either underpaid or not paid at all. Though we may disagree on the issues, no one should question that our public servants get involved in local government out of genuine affection for their community. It’s a shame that the reward for such dedication is political homicide. When it comes to reputations, I would implore my fellow residents to take a good accounting of their own before destroying someone else’s. Jean Briggs-Badger deserves an apology.

Chris Buck

Dover

To the editor: What is it with Mr. Wayne Merritt’s continuing desire to link former President George W. Bush to all the evils of the past decade? (Fosters 1/23) He lumps President Bush with Lance Armstrong, as though he two had anything common other than Texas. What, does he think the former President was administrating the steroids to Armstrong himself? Or maybe he thinks the former president was the (shush, quiet) supplier?

Mr. Merritt must think Lance Armstrong and the president conspired to cause 9/11? He lumps them together. Or no, wait, Armstrong ferreted the WMD out of Iraq on his bicycle! That’s it! And then Bush declared war on Iraq to get Armstrong his supply of steroids so that the two of them could conspire to win the Tour de France and humiliate the French.

If Mr. Merritt actually thinks President Bush conspired to cause 9/11 then he must be imagining things. And of course, it never occurred to him that it’s just possible there were WMDs in Iraq and that they were/are buried in the desert or smuggled in to Syria. Just supposition of course, but possible. Can’t be proven one way or the other, but it’s possible. But it makes a lot more sense than linking the former president with a former world champion bicyclist for the sole reason of ridicule.

Tom Seiler

Dover

To the editor: I am a 25-year veteran police officer who retired in 2009 as deputy chief of police for the Portsmouth Police Department. The first three years of my law enforcement career were with the Dover Police Department. I own several firearms that are secured in my home in a locked safe. When I was working, I usually carried a firearm off-duty because I felt it was my obligation to protect the public even when I wasn’t officially on duty should the emergency arise. But since I have retired, I do not carry, even though I have a concealed weapon permit granted to me by the state. So I am not “anti-gun” by any stretch, even though I am a liberal Democrat.

I think the “Stand Your Ground” statute is misguided at best, and dangerous in the absolute. There would be a teenager in Florida who would still be alive today to pursue his dreams and live his life had it not been for the Florida statute that mirrors the NH Stand Your Ground. That law in Florida has failed miserably to make its citizens safer. If anything, research has shown that it has allowed the murder rate to increase, with a known criminal element using the law as a shield for murder. New Hampshire is not Florida, but the basis for the state legislatures passing this kind of law is not based in reality.

In truth, New Hampshire RSAs have always given its citizens the legal right to defend their lives using deadly force, no matter where they are, be it their homes or in a public place. The only stipulation is that when in a public place, if you can retreat safely, you must, but if you cannot, then you are justified to use whatever force is necessary, including deadly force, to protect either yourself or a third party from imminent harm. If you are in your house, there is no duty to retreat.

This law has been in effect for decades in New Hampshire and it has worked. Judges and juries have always used a “reasonableness” standard when hearing cases where deadly force was used in a public place. The Stand Your Ground law handcuffs the courts as well as the police. It must be repealed.

I have written to my state representatives to ask them to vote to repeal this law, and I commend Rep. Steve Shurtleff for having the courage to sponsor this bill.

Len DiSesa

Dover

To the editor: We are getting a bit of advice from Stanislav Mishin, a columnist in Pravda, Russia‘s largest newspaper: America, keep your guns.

“This will probably come as a total shock to most of my Western readers, but at one point, Russia was one of the most heavily armed societies on earth. This was, of course, when we were free under the tsar. Weapons, from swords and spears to pistols, rifles and shotguns were everywhere, common items. People carried them concealed, they carried them holstered.”

However, the communists weren’t stupid, he wrote, and when they took power, “One of the first things they did was to disarm the population.”

“From that point, mass repression, mass arrests, mass deportations, mass murder, mass starvation were all a safe game for the powers,” Mishin wrote. Around 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and killed.

The Pravda column noted that taking over territory holding “an extremely well armed and aggressive population determined to exterminate or driving out the aggressor” was no simple matter.

“To this day, with the Soviet Union now dead 21 years, we are still denied our basic and traditional rights to self-defense. Why? We are told that everyone would just start shooting each other and crime would be everywhere …. but criminals are still armed and still murdering and too often, especially in the far regions, those criminals wear the uniforms of the police.”

Even today, the columnist wrote, authorities “do as they please, a tyrannical class who know they have absolutely nothing to fear from an unarmed population.”

Mishin said America’s Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, “is a rare light in an ever darkening room.”

Just as Russia was taken over by the communists in the early 20th century, today America is in the process of being knocked to it’s knees by an engineered collapse and taken over by an elitist imposed one-world government. It is now obvious what is going on here in the wake of Sandy Hook. The establishment is finally pulling out the last remaining stops in its long envisioned disarmament of the American people.

A well-armed and educated population prevents the tyrannical global elite from realizing their takeover of America. Now is the time to take the advice of our Russian friend, Stanislav Mishin. America, keep your guns and keep them all.